Norwich officials to rule on soup kitchen permit

Ever since it relocated to the former St. Joseph School on Cliff Street during the summer, controversy has swirled around the St. Vincent de Paul Place ministry operated by the Norwich diocese. Tonight, the city’s planning board is expected to rule whether the food pantry and soup kitchen will be allowed to stay there on the strength of a special permit.

Ever since it relocated to the former St. Joseph School on Cliff Street during the summer, controversy has swirled around the St. Vincent de Paul Place ministry operated by the Norwich diocese.

Tonight, the city’s planning board is expected to rule whether the food pantry and soup kitchen will be allowed to stay there on the strength of a special permit.

Officials are citing Section 8.1.2(b) of the city’s zoning code, which allows the Commission on the City Plan to grant a special permit in residential areas for “philanthropic, educational, recreational, religious and eleemosynary (charitable) use by a duly incorporated nonprofit or government unit” as grounds for St. Vincent de Paul’s move.

Michael Strammiello, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich, said several high ranking representatives will be at tonight’s meeting, including the Rev. Leszek Janik, the diocese’s vicar general, and Jillian Corbin, St. Vincent de Paul’s executive director.

“We’re going to fully participate, because we have from the outset been fully cooperative and fully engaged in trying to be the best possible neighbor while fulfilling our mission as a church,” Strammiello said. “We look forward to continuing that discussion.”

The meeting has been moved to City Hall in anticipation of a large turnout.

According to documents included in the diocese’s application — which was filed Sept. 21 with the city — officials are planning no future development at the 120 Cliff St. site, and describe St. Vincent de Paul as a “church outreach program.”

“We feel that the proposed use is harmonious with the surrounding neighborhood,” the application says. “We consider the use less intensive then the school when it was operational.”

At the school’s peak in 1992, there were 300 students with 20 staff members. By the time St. Joseph was shut down in 2010, there were 90 students with 16 staff members, according to data provided by the diocese.

St. Vincent de Paul, which launched in 1979, has two full-time employees and five part-time employees. The nonprofit provides breakfast from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday and lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The ministry has been operating out of St. Joseph School since early July, when ongoing renovations to its long-time Railroad Avenue home forced it to move. St. Vincent de Paul won a six-month variance to keep it functioning on Cliff Street, with the expectation it would return to downtown Norwich in January.

But since then, the diocese claims too much damage has been discovered at Railroad Avenue, and moving back there would be impossible.

City leaders have refused to comment on whether Cliff Street is an appropriate location for St. Vincent de Paul, because doing so could taint the legal process, officials have asserted.

In reviewing the diocese’s application, Police Chief Louis J. Fusaro Sr. and Jim Roberts, the Norwich Fire Department’s deputy fire marshal, said no safety concerns exist, though Roberts did request water supply data to determine whether a sprinkler system needs to be installed.